Assignments
Assignment allows organizations to track how commercial activity (projects) and equipment activity (assets) are related over time. This connects each asset with an associated project when relevant, such as when assets are deployed at customer sites.
Understand assignment relationships
An asset can be assigned to a project (or unassigned from) a project. An asset cannot be assigned to more than one project at once.
A project can have assets assigned to it (or have assets unassigned from it). A project can have multiple assets assigned to it at once.
An individual assignment for a specific asset on a specific project includes a start date and an end date. Because an asset can only be assigned to one project at a time, assignments cannot overlap.
Why assignments?
Assignment is critical for hardware-as-a-service businesses because asset lifecycles become complex in hardware subscriptions. From a commercial perspective (project revenue), organizations need to understand the asset costs that are being incurred against the project. From a hardware perspective (asset cost), organizations need to understand the project revenue that is being driven by the asset.
Interested in diving deeper? Read our article about asset lifecycle management for hardware subscriptions to learn more.
Assignment history
Did you know? Visualizing an assignment history is the clearest way to understand what asset activity has occurred on a project over time.
An example assignment history might be the following:
An upcoming project had assets TWR-1002 and TWR-1003 reserved for it in September
The project "Watsonville first HaaS deal" starts in October
In November, asset TWR-1003 needs to be returned for repairs, so is unassigned from the project
A few days later, a replacement asset (TWR-1006) is sent out and assigned to the project
Then in December, asset TWR-1002 also needs to be returned for repairs, so is unassigned
A few days later, another replacement asset (TWR-1008) is sent out and assigned to the project
As of March, the project is still ongoing and both of the replacement assets TWR-1006 and TWR-1008 are still assigned to the project
Visualized, that same assignment history might look like:
Assignment models
Assets may be assigned to a project however makes sense for your business, based on your downstream reporting needs. Some common patterns that Hardfin customers use:
1) Logistics-based assignments. In many cases, teams will assign asset to a project when the asset ships out to the customer.
This means that the asset and its costs are allocated to the project as soon as the asset leaves your warehouse.
2) Reservation-based assignments. In other cases, organizations will assign assets to a project as soon as the affiliation is known. That is, as soon as an asset has been designated to a customer, the assignment is made to the project.
This means that the asset and its costs are allocated to the project as soon as the asset is effectively "reserved" for the customer.
3) Value-based assignments. Less commonly, organizations will assign assets to a project after the asset is delivered or starts doing work. That is, the assignment is not made to the project until after the asset is on site and deployed.
This means that the asset and its costs are not allocated to the project until the asset is producing value for the customer, and costs outside of that range are allocated to overhead.
4) Commercial-based assignments. Least commonly, organizations will assign assets to a project when the project begins. That is, the assignment starts when the project starts.
This means that the asset and its costs coincide with the project dates exactly, even if the asset is delivered early or late. This approach is not recommended because it does not take advantage of Hardfin's native ability to track asset and commercial activity independently.
Assigning and unassigning
Assignments can be created, updated, and deleted from the asset details page or from the project details page. Use whichever approach makes sense for your businesses.
Some companies work on an individual project to send out a corresponding batch of assets, which is a more project-centric workflow. This is common for smaller devices, such as sensors or handhelds.
Some companies work on an individual asset and send out a single asset to its corresponding project, which is a more asset-centric workflow. This is common for larger devices, such as heavy machinery and equipment that drives.
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